Plain Yogurt, Not-so-Plain Potential

Plain Yogurt, Not-so-Plain Potential

Quite likely the most rapidly growing and ever-changing section of the supermarket, shopping for yogurt these days is worse than buying pantyhose. Don’t you find there are too many choices? Or, you finally find a yogurt you like and when you go to buy it next time, it’s been bumped out of the line-up.

Perhaps the solution is plain yogurt.

Plain yogurt is made by combining milk with bacterial culture (which you can get from existing yogurt.) If you decide to make it, simply google to find recipes and video clips. Whether you make or buy plain yogurt, it’s a highly nutritious choice. One cup of plain, low fat yogurt supplies 140 calories, 14 grams of protein and almost half the daily requirement for calcium. If you find flavoured yogurts a bit sweet or you’re trying to avoid artificial sweeteners used in many yogurts, you can take plain and add a little pureed fruit, real fruit spread, dried fruit and nuts, vanilla or almond flavouring or other ingredients to make your own custom yogurt.

Plain yogurt is incredibly versatile in cooking. I’d love to hear how you like to use it. Here are some of the ways we use it at home:

Accompany curry dishes as a way to make the sauce creamier and tone down spiciness if needed

Add to fruit smoothies to get a real flavour from the fruit as opposed to using fruit-flavoured yogurt